him up? What was his mouth? What arms (had he)? What (two objects) are
said (to have been) his thighs and feet? The Brahman was his mouth; the
Rajanya was made his arms; the being (called) the Vaisya, he was his
thighs; the Sudra sprang from his feet. The moon sprang from his soul
(Mahas), the sun from his eye, Indra and Agni from his mouth, and Yaiyu
from his breath. From his navel arose the air, from his head the sky,
from his feet the earth, from his ear the (four) quarters; in this
manner (the gods) formed the world. When the gods, performing sacrifice,
bound Purusha as a victim, there were seven sticks (stuck up) for it
(around the fire), and thrice seven pieces of fuel were made. With
sacrifice the gods performed the sacrifice. These were the earliest
rites. These great powers have sought the sky, where are the former
Sadhyas, gods."

The myth here stated is plain enough in its essential facts. The gods
performed a sacrifice with a gigantic anthropomorphic being (Purusha =
Man) as the victim. Sacrifice is not found, as a rule, in the religious
of the most backward races of all; it is, relatively, an innovation, as
shall be shown later. His head, like the head of Ymir, formed the sky,
his eye the sun, animals sprang from his body. The four castes are
connected with, and it appears to be implied that they sprang from, his
mouth, arms, thighs and feet. It is obvious that this last part of the
myth is subsequent to the formation of castes. This is one of the chief
arguments for the late date of the hymn, as castes are not distinctly
recognised elsewhere in the Rig-Veda. Mr. Max Muller(1) believes the
hymn to be "modern both in its character and in its diction," and this
opinion he supports by philological arguments. Dr. Muir(2) says that the
hymn "has every character of modernness both in its diction and ideas".
Dr Haug, on the other hand,(3) in a paper read in 1871, admits that the
present form of the hymn is not older than the greater part of the hymns
of the tenth book, and than those of the Atharva Veda; but he adds, "The
ideas which the hymn contains are certainly of a primeval antiquity....
In fact, the hymn is found in the Yajur-Veda among the formulas
connected with human sacrifices, which were formerly practised in
India." We have expressly declined to speak about "primeval antiquity,"
as we have scarcely any evidence as to the myths and mental condition
for example, even of palaeolithic man; but we may so f